The Nation: Voting for Virtue

In a state long known for tolerating corrupt officials,* the voters left
a surprised politician dangling in the winds of change last week.
Joseph J.C. DiCarlo was the odds-on favorite to win a Democratic
primary for a seat in the Massachusetts senatethe very seat, indeed,
that he had held before his colleagues threw him out only this April.
The reason for the ousting was the conviction of DiCarlo, 41, and
Republican State Senator Ronald MacKenzie on charges of squeezing
$40,000 from a New York consulting firm in exchange for suppressing a
legislative report criticizing the company's work on state construction
contracts....